"I think I have to disagree here. The historical and cultural importance of the GDL capital to later Lithuania is quite clear, although in the early 20th century the connection was only slightly stronger than, let's say, the connection between London and the United States..."

You are right. I shouldn't have used the word 'logical'. There are historical connections, but these didn't make it necessary or obvious that Vilnius should have belonged to Lithuania (in the context of 1918).

"There's no logical or necessary connection between Vilnius being the capital of the Grand Duchy and Vilnius the capital of the Republic of Lithuania."

I think I have to disagree here. The historical and cultural importance of the GDL capital to later Lithuania is quite clear, although in the early 20th century the connection was only slightly stronger than, let's say, the connection between London and the United States...

@cheesus

"Can you support your allegation by a single fact?"

Eradication is perhaps too strong, such words should be reserved for instances of cultural genocide, which this is certainly not the case here. It is a fact that Lithuanian nationalists saw and still see Polish culture as the biggest threat to the Lithuanian culture, and have always supported proposals aiming to minimize the Polish influences.

For an excellent reading on the subject, see for example Timothy Snyder, "The reconstruction of nations:
Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999", Yale University Press, 2004

PS. On the subject of Lithuanian treatment of Polish culture, I'd like for our Lithuanian discussants to provide some examples of how Polish culture is SUPPORTED or even CELEBRATED in Lithuania. As an example of a Polish support of Lithuanian culture, see for example the prominent exhibition celebrating "1000 years of Lithuanian Statehood" in the Royal Castle in Warsaw (http://www.zamek-krolewski.pl/?page=Litwa_kultura_i_historia_wystawa_100... - Polish language link). I'd very much like to hear about an exhibition celebrating Polish culture, in a place of similar prominence in Lithuania...

@cheesus
>>fact is that Lithuanians as whole see the cultural and historical >>heritage of Poles living in the Wilno/Vilnius region as something >>to be eradicated.
>Can you support your allegation by a single fact?

It's a fact, that a common Lithuanian historical view is that the Poles were "invaders" and/or "polonised Lithuanians" and so on. Poles and their relations with Lithuanians are portrayed in a unfair, negative manner by the Lithuanian historiography, and because of that, the common Lithuanian view on the heritage of the Wilno/Vilnius Poles is a negative one.

@Forlana:
That is an interesting theory, it might be true at least in part. I would still speculate that reload of relations with Minsk is an expression of domestic interests + maybe new Brussels position.
About name calling: I din't consider "ridiculous" to be very strong or very offensive. As the offence was taken, I must apologize.

This is about a Polish professor of law married to a Lithuanian woman. His name is Łukasz Wardyn. His wife was forced to Lithuanize her name as Vardyn because the letter "w" is unconstitutional in Lithuania. The couple is suing Lithuania in the European Court of Justice for making a mockery of their marriage. Who would want to be known as Wardyn married to Vardyn? The verdict is due in March 2011.

Here is a video (in Polish) from Wardyn's (Vardyn's - for Lithuanian pundits unfamiliar with "w") lecture on human rights in Vilnius (the capital of Lithuania from time immemorial into eternity [sic]):

He says that he cannot legally write his name with "w", but the biggest bank in Lithuania, Swedbank, can. In fact, there are 740 companies registered in Lithuania with names with "w" and other unconstitutional diacritical signs. If a human being in Lithuania is named Wyk, he says, then the only way for him to write it officially with "w" is to put it on a license plate of his car for a promotional fee of 600 euros. It's hard to understand why Lithuania is so determined to be a laughingstock of Europe.

@Jan Toldsepp
>>You seem to forget that ethnic Poles have been living in Lithuanian territory for hundreds of years.

Bull..it. Lithuanian elite started using Polish some time after Union of Lublin. Even then it was forbiden for ethnic Poles to buy land in Lithuania. Before UoL Lithuanian and Ruthenian languages were used.

You will do favor to yourself if stop talking about history of Lithuania.

"The Poles seem to forget that they invaded and occupied our capital."

You seem to forget that ethnic Poles have been living in Lithuanian territory for hundreds of years and that the Lithuanian nation state was only established in 1918. They are not immigrants.
Vilnius was the capital of the Grand Duchy, and the Grand Duchy was a multinational state, on the contrary Lithuanian nationalists wished to establish a state in which ethnic Lithuanians were dominant. There's no logical or necessary connection between Vilnius being the capital of the Grand Duchy and Vilnius the capital of the Republic of Lithuania. In 1918 Poles or Belarusians had as much right to claim Vilnius as Lithuanians had.
Besides, ethnic Lithuanians were only a small minority (1-2%) in Vilnius in 1918. The majority, Jews and Poles, were deported or killed during and after the Second World War, providing the opportunity for ethnic Lithuanians to become the majority in Vilnius.

As a Lithuanian, married to a Polish women, I saw this issue come up with my son's name, Wilhelm. When we got his Lithuanian Passport, we had to change it to Vilhelm. That is the way it should be. If the ethnic Poles do not like it, they can move to Poland. The Poles seem to forget that they invaded and occupied our capital. Now the former invaders are angry that we our not taking in their language.

That said, our new President is not that good, and does not have the diplomatic skills of Mr. Adamkus.

Please do note that Polish-Lithuanian disagreements started much earlier than one year ago.

What I ment however, is not Dalia Grybauskaite looking for Lukashenka's support regarding mistreatment of Polish minority in LT.

I rather thought her action is in line with LT feeling that Poland will no longer be that country's anchor in the West. Which is not true and there are no signs that Poland is changing her long term political strategy. Lithuanians worry nonetheless and pointlessly they vow that from now on they will anchor their state in Europe through the Baltic See and the Scandinavian states, plus they will intesify their relations with Belarus, to somehow decrease the expected losses regarding Poland. In Poland such gestures are received as a confirmation the LT is feeling that for the misconduct some retalliations are to be expected, and acts in order to get a start over them.

Finally, please do kindly note that the nice chats we have here are intended for nice exchange of thoughts not the epithets.

The tone of recent Lukashenka-Medvedev relationship is well illustrated by the following Medvedev statement in mid-October:

“President Lukashenko’s utterings not only go beyond all diplomatic sense, they are downright indecent. He is obviously concerned about a lot of things: bringing order to our economy; Russian journalists talking to Belarusian opposition; even what happens to some of our retired and sacked higher officials. The president of Belarus, it seems, should be looking into the interior affairs of his own country such as for instance the multiple disappearances of Belarusian citizens. Russia, like other countries, is concerned over these people’s fates,” Medvedev said.

@Forlana:
So you imply that Lithuanian president went to a country whose goverment is not recognized anywhere (except probably in Russia and similar places) to seek support against Poland on such a trifle as polish diacritics?
Don't be ridiculous. Besides, we have an influential business group that wanted better relations with Belarus for a long time and it seems that Grybauskaite is acting in line with them. Furthermore, this flirt with Lukashenko started approximately an year ago, much earlier than Lith-Pol vocal disagreements.

Dear Sir,
I am sorry to be so malicious, but I can't help it. Regarding Dalia Grybauskaite wishing Batia Lukashenka the re-election, in the light of recent Polish-Lithuanian incompabilities (which is a bit Polonocentric, I know), the saying 'drowning men clutch at straws' comes to my mind. Polish version however better fits here 'tonący brzytwy się chwyta'.

"I frequently travel to regions inhabited by Poles and I know what bothers them. Indeed, they talk about schools and property restitution, but also about building better roads. Those are problems."

- yes, that's true. I'd say that the first priorities for the Polish minority would be the property restitution, the language discrimination (fines for using Polish language signs on private property), and the matter of Polish schools. The spelling problem is actually probably the 4th problem at most.

"The social democrats ruled for eight years prior to us (the conservatives – editor’s note) and they essentially did nothing on the issue of names, but there were no harsh reactions from Warsaw. Why is it that the issue of names has suddenly become the most important?"

- for nearly 20 years, Poland's foreign polity was dictated by the so called Giedroyc Doctrine, which advocated "friendship at all cost" with Lithuania and other small countries of the former Soviet Union. Because of that, Poland was actually ignoring the problems of Polish minority in Lithuania, in hope that the policy of friendship will slowly extinguish the chauvinism of the Lithuanians. It did't work, the situation of Poles in Lithuania actually became worser.

BTW I do not believe that Kubilius does't know about that, I suspect that he is simply not fully honest in this interview.

"I believe that the cultural and historical heritage of the Poles and Jews living in the Vilnius region are a treasure for Lithuania."

- This answer is in reality dodging. Whatever Kubilius himself believes about that, he should mention the fact is that Lithuanians as whole see the cultural and historical heritage of Poles living in the Wilno/Vilnius region as something to be eradicated.